1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cut resistant protective gloves and more particularly to an uncoated, ultra-lightweight, cut resistant surgeon's glove which has cut resistance even after disinfectant treatment with sodium hypochlorite.
The gloves of the present invention may be worn alone or in combination with other gloves and therefore, the term "glove" herein is intended to encompass glove liners as well as gloves.
2.1 The Prior Art--Problems Faced
With the onslaught of the AIDS crisis and the spread of various hepatitis infections, the medical community has been searching for new ways to protect themselves from the risk of infection from body fluids. By medical community is meant people who come into contact with these body fluids, e.g., doctors such as surgeons and pathologists, dentists, nurses, hospital technicians, emergency medical technicians, veterinarians, embalmers and other funeral personnel. The fear of AIDS infection by medical professionals has received a great deal of media attention recently, primarily for two reasons: first, AIDS is a contagious disease that nearly always results in death, and second, some medical professionals are leaving their positions due to that fear. NEWSWEEK, Nov. 20, 1989, pp 82-3, Volume CXIV, No. 21. SIXTY MINUTES, Sep. 24, 1989, 7:22 p.m., WCBS/TV & THE CBS TV NETWORK, New York.
Hand protection has become a major priority in order to counter infectious threats from cuts during surgery or whenever hands are exposed simultaneously to body fluids and sharp edges, e.g., emergency medical technicians attending people in automobile accidents involving torn metal or shattered glass. Use of a highly cut resistant glove to fit under, over or between the standard latex medical gloves is highly desirable in such instances due to the latex glove's susceptibility to cuts. Such a glove, however, must provide this cut protection while minimizing problems of retaining dexterity and tactile sensitivity, and of allergenic reactions. Furthermore, since some medical personnel pour Dakin's Solution (5% sodium hypochlorite solution), a known disinfectant for the AIDS virus, inside their gloves to protect themselves in the event that their glove is cut, punctured, or torn during use, such a glove should also have cut resistance after exposure to such a solution.
2.2 The Prior Art--Earlier Attempts at Protection
Some prior efforts for hand protection have used chain mail gloves or other varieties of metal fibers in gloves that, while cut resistant, are stiff and awkward as well as heavy. Heavy gloves produce hand fatigue that may aggravate or cause very uncomfortable conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Lighter weight gloves of cotton, polyester or other textile fibers provide the desired tactile sensitivity but no appreciable protection from cuts; to provide significant cut protection with these materials would require so much fabric that the glove would be practically inflexible due to bulk, and the wearer would have little or no tactile sensitivity.
A surgeon's glove has been developed and is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,290 and division thereof, U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,733, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference. This surgical glove provides tactility on the ventral side and cut protection on the dorsal side. The dorsal side includes a layer of flexible armor material, preferably interwoven fibers of nylon or Kevlar.RTM., embedded in a stretchable air and water impermeable material which is integrally connected to a ventral side which also includes a thin layer of stretchable air and water impermeable material, preferably latex. While this glove could possibly be sterilized for reuse, the manufacturer's test for leaks is not one that a typical hospital/medical facility runs; without such testing, there can be no guarantee that the glove wouldn't have a pinhole or other aperture through which infectious fluids could be transmitted on subsequent use. As a practical matter, therefore, elastomeric coated gloves would be used only once prior to their disposal. Economics favors disposal over sterilization for a standard latex medical glove--when cut resistant materials are incorporated, however, sterilization may be more favorable economically. Consequently, it would be desirable to have a cut resistant glove which could be sterilized as part of a hospital/medical facility's routine without the necessity of retesting the glove for leaks.
It is also known to make cut resistant fabric for protective gloves in the meat cutting industry. For example see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,883,898, 4,004,295, 4,384,449 and 4,470,251, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 3,883,898 suggests using an aramid fiber such as Kevlar.RTM. in lightweight, flexible, cut resistant gloves. The other three patents suggest using a nonmetallic fiber such as Kevlar.RTM. in combination with a metallic fiber to form lightweight, flexible, cut resistant gloves. All of the patents suggest that the aramid component of the gloves tolerates the rather high temperatures encountered during laundering and sterilization of the gloves. Furthermore, the weight of the gloves, 56.7 g. (about 2 oz.), is touted as significantly lower than that of the prior art metal mesh gloves, of about 340 to 397 g. (about 12 to 14 oz.), according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,449.
European Patent Application 0 118 898, published Sep. 19, 1984, teaches a protective, cut resistant glove which is preferably knitted from yarn having a core of one or more wire strands and a fiber strand, and two wrappings of fiber strands. The knitted glove is at least partially coated in an elastomeric material. The total diameter of the yarn is no greater than 1.27 mm, and while relatively lightweight, the glove shell alone weighs in excess of about 55.3 g.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,514, hereby incorporated by reference, teaches a cut resistant glove made from a yarn which comprises a core of monofilament nylon, a first wrap on the core comprising at least one strand of aramid fiber, and a second wrap on the core comprising a strand of nylon. The stated advantage of this yarn over that suggested in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,004,295 is that this yarn is electrically nonconductive. This glove would lose some of its cut resistance after disinfectant treatment with sodium hypochlorite, as is explained further below.
Other prior art of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,789, hereby incorporated by reference, which also teaches a protective glove.
The present invention overcomes many of the limitations of cut resistant gloves made using the prior art.